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Supermodels, Design and the Marketing Message

A Supermodel’s Marketing Dilemma – How’s my hair look now?

An ex-supermodel friend of mine relayed a story of her agents debating throughout the night on whether or not she should cut her hair to have bangs. Why? Because, silly as it seems, these kind of details do actually matter. They have a subtle affect on how the consumer perceives and interacts with your product.

When designing anything – whether a book cover, a billboard, a house, an outfit, the first question to ask yourself is “What do I want to communicate?”. This is basically, what concept do you want to instill in the person who will look at this?

This becomes especially important when you are trying to market a particular product or service. You want to look at what feeling someone should get when looking at your ad or website, and then communicate that.

What would Cindy Crawford do?

This plays through in every little detail: certain colors and color combinations will create a certain feeling – e.g., one shade of green (think Regions bank) inspires thoughts of grass and growth, while a darker green (Pine-Sol) might evoke a feeling of stability and cleanliness. Regarding my friend and her bangs — bangs can evoke a sense of naivete or flirtation, where long hair is perceived as more mature and confident. Which is the feeling you want your product to have?

When it comes to details like this, designers will quibble for hours over minute details in typography, font, layout – everything. Don’t get overwhelmed with the enormity of possibilities, though. The simplicity is this: decide what you want to communicate. Then, communicate that. Anything that does not contribute to that communication does not belong on your piece. And every detail that is on your piece should further that concept. Never put something down half-heartedly; that will only detract from your message. The best design has all of its elements aligned in one clear direction.